


Pick Me Up (When I Fall)

by NovaGlitch



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Can be read as Hance or platonic, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Gen, I don't judge, Keith makes an appearance, Lance and water is my weakness, Light Angst, Pidge makes an appearance, Shiro makes an appearance - Freeform, Supportive Hunk, lance is suffering, platonic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-18
Updated: 2016-09-18
Packaged: 2018-08-15 15:19:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8061532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NovaGlitch/pseuds/NovaGlitch
Summary: Lance had always been particularly good at hiding things, especially from other people, but Hunk was an exception.  With others, he’d put on a brave face that was so authentic that sometimes even Hunk would be thrown, but sooner or later he’d catch a falter in his confident smile or a quick flicker of sadness in his eyes, but in an instant it’d be gone, replaced with the same arrogant smirk he put on just for show.  But Hunk knew better.





	

**Author's Note:**

> So after like 20000 years I'm done with my first fic for this fandom. 
> 
> I may or may not add more chapters through more character perspectives, but we'll just start with the BFF's.
> 
> Enjoy!

Lance had always been particularly good at hiding things, especially from other people, but Hunk was an exception. 

With others, he’d put on a brave face that was so authentic that sometimes even Hunk would be thrown, but sooner or later he’d catch a falter in his confident smile or a quick flicker of sadness in his eyes, but in an instant it’d be gone, replaced with the same arrogant smirk he put on just for show. 

But Hunk knew better.

The team had just wrapped up with another Galra strike, their goal being to take out as many smaller fleets as possible for both practice and weakening the growing empire. Their mission had gone off without a hitch, and everyone had worked as well as a well-oiled machine. There had been no hiccups in the plan, which rarely happened, and now they were all comfortably relaxing on the circular couch in the main space. Hunk was sitting on one of the couches, feet lazily propped up on a small footstool, while Keith, Pidge, and Shiro were on one of the other couches, Pidge with her head back and Shiro and Keith quietly discussing something between themselves. 

That left Lance.

He hadn’t been as vocal as he usually was after a victory, the walk back from the hangars lacking his usual shouts of praise, bad renditions of what they did, and a few tall tales of his own run ins against Galra ships with Blue. Instead, Lance had been quiet and reserved. He hadn’t even offered a few jabs at Keith just to spite him. He’d trailed behind the rest of them, his head lowered to the ground, and mouth shut.

Something was definitely off.

He was sitting on the other sofa that completed the circle, alone. His eyes were glued to his hands, which he was fussing with, inspecting them like they were the most interesting things in the world. He seemed like a small, vulnerable child. _Not Lance._

“We did great out there today, guys,” Hunk breaks the silence, smiling wide. He looks to them, one by one. 

Pidge hums in agreement, as do Keith and Shiro. 

Lance remains quiet.

“We did some amazing flying out there, too,” he looks over at Lance, “And when Blue took out that thruster, man oh man,” he laughs, “That was awesome.” 

Nothing. Not even a snarky remark of how he’s always awesome. If the others didn’t know something was wrong before, they sure did now. 

Hunk looks to them, silently pleading for help.

“Hey, Lance,” Shiro ( _bless him_ ) shifts his attention toward Lance. The paladin doesn’t look up. “ _Lance_ ,” he presses. 

“Huh?” The Blue Paladin blinks, looking up at them slowly. “Wha—were you talking to me?”

“Yeah,” Hunk shifts so his feet are on the ground and straightens up, directing all his attention toward his friend. “You okay, buddy?”

Lance’s eyes are vacant, Hunk can tell even from this distance, but the emptiness is gone in a flash and a playful gleam takes over. “Me? Yeah! I’m good, I’m fine. Tired is all.” He grins, snapping out of his stupor. 

Shiro hesitates, but soon relaxes back into the couch, accepting his excuse. Keith and Pidge do the same, falling back into what they were doing previously.

Hunk narrows his eyes at Lance. He’s not fooled. Everyone else might be, but not him. 

Lance lets his face fall again, seeing the others turn away, but when his gaze locks with Hunk, he freezes. His face looks tired, so _so_ tired. He’s exhausted—hell, they all are—but there’s something else there. Something that causes a twinge of pain in his heart. 

Lance offers a small smile, but Hunk knows. He knows something’s wrong. He always does, but he knows better than to call him out on it. He’s known Lance a long time, them being childhood friends and all, so he knows better than to confront him in front of an audience, even if they are a team. Lance is fragile, despite what he acts like, so getting to the root of the problem was going to take some gentle prying. 

Before Hunk can subtly ask Lance to talk to him alone, the blue paladin is on his feet, exaggerating a yawn and stretching his hands high above his head. “Well, I’m spent. Night.” It’s short, curt, and _so not like him_. He’s out of the room before anyone can even respond.

Hunk stares after him. This was his chance. “Yeah, me too, guys. Like I said, great job today. We’re getting there, getting closer to Zarkon. See you all at training in the morning.”

The remaining three bid him goodnight, but he has other things on his mind. He walks out of the room calmly, as to not raise suspicion and makes a beeline for Lance’s room. He knocks lightly. “Lance?” There’s no answer, so he knocks again, a bit louder. “Hey, Lance? It’s me, Hunk, can I come in?” 

Again there’s no answer. Concern starts swelling in his chest as he goes to the panel beside the door. He navigates around the options until he finds the time register of when the door last opened, but when he sees it, he’s puzzled. 

There’s no record of the door opening in the past few minutes. No in and no out. He can see the timestamp from earlier that day, but the rest is blank. 

“Lance, where are you?” He mutters to himself, the concern getting worse. Lance had said he was going to turn in for the night, so where was he? Perhaps the bathroom? Lance had an extensive skin care routine that he did every morning and night, so could he possibly be there? Hunk shrugs to himself, might as well check.

The bathrooms were only down the hall, so there wasn’t far to go, but when he steps in, the automatic lights flicker on. He huffs. There was no way Lance had come here in the past few minutes, so where was he? 

He slumps against the wall, racking his brain for any other places Lance would head to. The training deck? No, that would be Keith. It couldn’t be the common room because they were just there… The dining hall? No, Lance had seemed like he wanted to be alone, so the dining hall was bound to have late night visitors in for a midnight snack or two. The control room? He remembered how he’d found him there some nights, curled up with a blanket and a pillow, looking at the stars, planets, and the vastness of space. It was worth a shot to check.

Hunk leaves the bathrooms, headed for the control room. The ship isn’t _that_ big, regardless of what it looks like from the outside, so Lance has to be somewhere. He’s determined to find him, even if he does have to search the entirety of the Castle. 

He picks up his pace, not wanting Lance to be alone for any longer than he already has been, but as he passes by the hangar doors, he pauses. Lance had mentioned awhile back how Blue was his rock, his friend. He backtracks, staring at the panel next to the door, contemplating whether to look at the register or continue to his destination. If he was going to have to search the Castle anyway, might as well make some stops along the way...just in case. 

It takes only a few clicks before the screen displays the time record. The last entry had been only five minutes ago. _Bingo_.

Hunk places his hand on the panel and the doors slide open. He steps in, listening for any sign of his friend, but all he can hear is a low hum of systems online and machinery.

“Lance?” He calls, letting his voice echo through the hangar. He passes each of the lion’s stalls, peeking in. The Green, Red, and Black lions were all standing, ready to go when needed, the Yellow lion—Sunshine, as Hunk so aptly named her—was lying down, head resting on her crossed paws. When he gets to the last hangar though, Blue is curled up tight in a ball on the ground, shifted toward the back of the large space. Her particle barrier is up, and Hunk can tell.

Lance was inside.

When he enters the stall, Blue lifts her head up, eyes glowing bright yellow. She curls in tighter, eyes locked on Hunk as he makes his way further into the room. 

“Hey, Blue,” he greets, hands up in a defensive gesture, “Can I talk to Lance?” At the mention of her paladin, she curls up even more, eyes glowing much brighter. He can feel the tension rising, so he backs off. “Whoa, whoa, it’s okay. It’s okay. I’m not going to hurt your paladin—uh, Lance…I just...I just want to talk to him.” She continues to eye him, limbs still tense. She starts to get up, but something stops her, causing her to relax. Her head lowers to the floor, mouth open and inviting. 

Hunk stares at the ramp for a moment before ascending into the cockpit. What he sees makes his heart sink.

Lance is curled up in his pilot chair, his knees pressed against his chest. There’s a blue blanket haphazardly draped around him, covering parts of his legs, but not his feet. His shoes and pilot uniform are discarded on the floor in the corner, leaving him in his dark grey undersuit. 

He looks downright exhausted, bags clear under his eyes, even in the dim light of the cockpit. He looks shameful, like he was caught doing something he shouldn’t have been doing, with just a hint of embarrassment. He just didn’t look like Lance. 

“Hey.” It’s soft, almost so soft that Hunk thought he’d imagined it. 

“Hi,” Hunk replies, not sure where to go from here. He’d seen Lance at his best and certainly at his worst, and he’s always been there to help, but seeing him like this, so broken, so frail, so _Not Lance_ , hits deep. Lance had always been an emotional guy, but he hid it so well that Hunk sometimes forgot how easily he could be broken. This was so out of his territory. Sure, he’d consoled him at the Garrison back on Earth, but up here, in space, he couldn’t soothe him the same way he’d always do it. He couldn’t speak of his family; no, they were completely off limits by this point. It was different. They were different. But nonetheless, Hunk would do his best. 

Lance avoids Hunk’s gaze, looking anywhere and everywhere that isn’t him. He’s fidgeting in his chair, clearly nervous. He clears his throat, breaking Hunk out of his thoughts.

“Are you...okay?” He could kick himself. Really? Did he really just ask that? How cliché of a question. ‘Are you okay,’ wow. 

Lance blinks. “I’m fine.”

“You’re here all alone.”

“I’ve got Blue.” He pats the chair, a ghost of a smile on his lips. “How’d you find me?”

Hunk shrugs. “I followed you after you left, but I thought you’d gone to your room. When I didn’t see you there, I was going to check the control room, but stopped at the hangars.” Lance still wasn’t looking at him. His eyes sweep the room. There were empty ration wrappers on the ground in the corner, a few blankets stuffed into a pile, and a few dozen water bottles strewn about in various places. It definitely looked lived in. “Do you come here a lot?”

“Sure,” he says softly, “All the time.”

Hunk nods, walking over to his chair and plopping down, legs crossed and back against the wall. “May I ask why?”

“Don’t you ever visit your lion?” Lance glances at him, a quick onceover before averting his eyes again. He settles into his chair a bit more, pulling at the blanket to bring it a bit higher. 

“Well, yeah, but,” Hunk looks at all the trash stuffed in random places, “by the looks of it, you’ve been living in here.”

“Sleeping, actually.” Lance curls up into a ball, emulating his lion, embarrassed. “When I can’t sleep, or know I won’t be able to, I come here. Blue helps.”

“How?”

Lance doesn’t answer, but instead leans over to the control panel behind him, clicking a button that Hunk can’t see. 

A soft sound starts echoing throughout the space, small metallic thuds that seem like they’re coming from outside of Blue. It’s calming and so familiar, but Hunk can’t place it.

He’s quiet as he listens to the sounds, closing his eyes after awhile. Soon, it hits him. 

_Rain._

He opens his eyes and looks up at Lance. His eyes are closed and there’s a smile on his face. It’s real, genuine, not forced like it had been before. 

There’s a rumble and Hunk feels it low in his chest. He relishes in the sound, a warmth spreading through him. _Thunder_.

“It’s…” Hunk is shocked. He hasn’t heard these sounds in so long. Being in space is cool and all, but you never really appreciate Earth until you’re not there anymore. 

Hunk and Lance would spend night after night sneaking out of their rooms at the Garrison, ducking in and out of hallways, trying not to get caught. They did get caught, _a lot_ , but on those rare nights that they didn’t, they’d climb to the roof, lay on their backs, and stare up at the stars. It was on those nights that they’d talk about how amazing space was and how they’d love to explore it, but now that they were here, _actually here_ , in space, in a _flying Castle ship_ , they missed Earth. They missed their families, obviously, but also the small things. The small things would add up and they’d suddenly think of it out of the blue, think of how many times they’d just gone about their days because that small thing would happen again. They knew it would. It was like the sun, you never worried about it because it always rose again the next morning. 

Rain was one of those things. It was an event, a treat, especially for Lance, but you’d never have to worry about it being your last. You’d go day by day, knowing that there would be another time to enjoy it, but now… Now they were in space and rain just wasn’t a thing that happened. Hunk tries to remember the last time he’d heard rain pinging against the roof of the Garrison dormitory, but he can’t. He can’t even remember the last time he and Lance had gone out and held their faces up to the sky, letting the cool drops splash on their faces, smiles wide. Lance had always loved those days, they both did. He’d sneak out of his room and into Hunk’s, scaring him to death most nights, and literally drag him out of bed out the door. They’d escape outside, splashing and laughing, not a care in the world.

He missed those days.

But now he was here in Blue, with Lance, in a deep trance. He could feel himself slipping away into sleep, but he had come to talk, and that’s what he was going to do.

Too bad Lance beats him to it.

“I miss Earth,” he sighs, letting the rain be the soundtrack to his voice. “I don’t only miss my family...I miss,” he waves a hand aimlessly, “everything, you know? I miss everything about it. How it smelled, how it looked, how it felt to have the sun on my skin, how the waves sounded, crashing against the shores when I went to the beach with my family...I miss it all.”

Hunk tilts his head back against the wall, closing his eyes. “Me too.”

“That’s why I started coming to Blue. I couldn’t sleep. Then I couldn’t focus because I couldn’t sleep. Then the team would get mad at me because I couldn’t focus because _I couldn’t sleep_.” Lance bows his head. “I didn’t tell anyone because well, I didn’t want anyone to know.”

“Not even me?” Hunk had opened his eyes, but his head was still slightly tilted back. 

Lance looks at him, really looks at him. He’d been avoiding it since Hunk came in, but it seemed like he’d finally gotten to him. “Especially you.”

“Why?” Hunk feels a stab of pain his heart. Did Lance really not trust him? After all they’d been through, on and off the Castle ship? To hear that Lance didn’t want him— _especially him_ —to know, hurt. It hurt a lot.

“Because you’re my best friend.”

Well that was unexpected. 

Sure, Hunk had known they were best friends; they’d known each other a long time, but didn’t it work the other way around? Best friends were supposed to trust each other, lean on one another for support. 

“I’m going to need some clarification on that, Lance,” The Yellow Paladin sits up straighter, pulling his legs in close. 

Lance’s face scrunches up like it always does when he’s in deep thought, but smoothes out, his features calm. “I didn’t want you to know because you’re my best friend. You’re the person who keeps me grounded and, well, I guess I didn’t want to burden you with that? I’m supposed to be ‘the glue’ that holds the team together, right? That’s what people call me? Well, how am I supposed to do that when I can’t sleep at night because I miss _rain_.” He sighs. “I mean, how pathetic is that?” 

Hunk shifts so he’s sitting on his heels. “Lance, I need you to look at me. Right now.” Lance doesn’t, so he reaches a hand out, placing it on his arm. “Please.”

Lance sniffs, obliging his request. His eyes are glossed over with tears and Hunk can’t take it anymore.

“Lance, you don’t have to be ‘the glue,’ okay? That’s way too much to put on one person’s shoulders.” Lance opens his mouth to interrupt, but Hunk shushes him. “No, listen to me, I’m talking. _Shush_. First of all, you are not pathetic for missing rain, alright? I miss it, too, just about as much as I miss my friends, my family, and all the little things. I miss so much, so you’re not alone in that. Actually, we’re both not alone because you can bet the rest of the team is just as homesick as we are, okay?” He grips Lance’s arm tighter, feeling tears in his own eyes. “Second, you could never _ever_ burden me with anything you want to tell me. You’re lonely? I’m there to help, just like at the Garrison, right?” Lance nods, his tears streaming freely down his face. He wipes them away with his sleeve, his eyes downcast, but he’s listening. “I’m always here for you, dude. We’re brothers. Brothers till the end, am I right?” Lance cracks a smile, a small one, but it’s still a win in Hunk’s book. He gets up and wraps his arms around the crying paladin. It’s awkward from this angle, Lance still sitting in his chair and Hunk looming over him. It’s enough though, as Lance’s sobs disappear and he stops shaking. 

They hold each other in companionable silence before Hunk smirks into Lance’s shoulder. “Lance, sometimes you can be such an idiot.”

He jerks back out of Hunks grip, mouth agape. “What? We’re having a bonding moment and you call me an idiot? _Jerk_.”

“Bonding moments are more yours and Keith’s thing, but nonetheless, you’re still an idiot. You’re an idiot for thinking after all we’ve been through together that you couldn’t come to me.”

“I was _embarrassed_ ,” Lance frowns, pouting.

Hunk chuckles, taking Lance back into his embrace. “I know, Lance, I know.” He lets go after a bit and stands up, cracking his back with his hands. “Tell you what. I’ll go make a trip to our bedrooms, grab our pillows and some blankets— _clean_ blankets—and we’ll both sleep in here tonight. Sound good?” 

Lance’s expression is nothing less of complete confusion. “You...you want to sleep in here? With me?” 

“Yeah, well, as long as Blue’s okay with my impromptu sleepover suggestion.” 

Lance beams, nodding enthusiastically. “She loves that idea.”

It only takes a couple trips, but soon Hunk has a stockpile of sleepover materials stacked in a far corner of the cockpit. There’s a few blankets, two pillows, a few packages of snacks Coran stored in the Castle’s kitchen, and a giant tub of food goo. 

Hunk lays out the blankets and arranges the pillows so Hunk’s head is by Lance’s feet and vice versa. He cracks open the tub of food goo, but Lance doesn’t look too enthused. 

“You couldn’t have grabbed something else? Anything else? You do realize we eat this stuff for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, right?” He eyes the slimy green goo, grimacing. 

“What can I say? I love the goo. But I know you don’t, so,” he rummages around in his pockets, grabbing something in a red wrapper, “here.” He hands it to Lance, shoving another scoop into his mouth. 

Lance turns the package around in his hands and almost screams when he reads the label. “Dude, are these _Skittles_?” He gapes at Hunk, who gives him a smirk. “How.” It’s more of a statement than a question, and Hunk grins.

“I had them on me when we left the Garrison in Blue and I’ve been saving them for a special occasion. I felt like this was that special occasion.”

Lance looked like he was going to cry. He about rips the entire package open, almost spilling them everywhere. He grabs a couple green candies and pops them in his mouth, literally moaning at the sensation. “Hunk, have I told you how much I love you?”

Hunk laughs. “Not recently, no.”

Lance lies down on his back and shoves more into his mouth. He sighs loudly, finally contempt. “You really are my best friend, you know that?”

Hunk follows Lance’s lead and lies down on his pillow, his arms crossed behind his head, food goo forgotten. “I know. And you know you’re my best friend, too, right? You know you can come to me whenever.”

Lance smiles at the ceiling. “I know.”

They lie there, the soft sounds of rain still drifting around the space. Hunk can feel himself drifting off, but before he can, Lance speaks.

“Hey, Hunk?” 

“Yeah?”

“Thanks. For everything.”

Hunk smiles sleepily, closing his eyes. “Anytime.”

They both let the rain soothe them to sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I really hope you liked it. Come yell at me on tumblr @castlelions if you want lol
> 
> Tell me if I should continue this with more emotional Lance hurt/comfort situations with other Paladins because damn do I love breaking this boy.
> 
> Kudos and advice are appreciated :)


End file.
